How solar helped a church pull out of the red and steward the community

This summer, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) collaborated with First Baptist Church in Mount Olive, North Carolina to host an event to explore the new opportunities solar energy is providing for the church and Wayne County.

Speakers included Senior Pastor Dennis Atwood and Angelo San Fratello, President of Trustees.

"It's a matter of stewardship for us and we didn't want the land to be developed for some purpose that would be contrary to the mission of our church," Atwood said. "And solar farming is clean energy, and it's a good use of the earth and it essentially goes back to providing power for almost an entire town."

“In a small town particularly, change just doesn’t happen real fast,” Atwood said. “So, again, it took a lot of conversation and just transparency and educating.”

State and Federal energy policies help make new economic opportunities for local groups and institutions like Mount Olive Baptist Church possible.

State and Federal energy policies help make new economic opportunities for local groups and institutions like Mount Olive Baptist Church possible – including U.S. Department of Energy research and development programs that help drive innovation and commercialize new technologies; policies supporting competition among independent energy providers; and tax policies encouraging private investment in clean energy businesses and projects.

EDF and TNC plan to continue to grow the conversations we started that day, along with our new friends at Mount Olive Baptist Church.

One Comment

David, yet another EDF promotional piece that's long on hype and short on substance.

"The solar farm we all toured generates more than 10,000 MWh of energy every year."

It does, does it? Not surprising, that as a reference you link to the company which took the honest-but-gullible congregation of the First Baptist Church for their hard-earned money.

Making EDF complicit in the scam being perpetrated on millions across the country, who have been led to believe solar-generated electricity represents significant progress in the fight against climate change.

About the author

David Kelly focuses on creating constructive partnerships and building support with policymakers, businesses and key stakeholders to advance policies that accelerate deployment of clean energy technologies.

About this Blog

EDF's energy experts discuss how to accelerate the transition to a clean, low-carbon energy economy.